Caroline goes to college
by Captivity Bound
Summary: A short one-short in which Klaus and Caroline meet in a dorm-room corridor. The ending leaves one to imagine what their future could be like if their biggest problems was Rebekah's attitude. AH.


Things were not going well for Caroline. For a girl very used to getting her own way, the last 6 hours had been nothing short of frustrating. While she slammed her money down on the coffee barrister's counter she made a mental list of all the 'obstacles' she had thus far been faced with.

1) Her application for a single room had somehow been mixed up and she had ended up with a room-mate. Greeeeeat. Someone to bear 24 hour witness to her mental break-downs and food binging episodes. She had yet to meet this room-mate - cue anxiety attack.

2) One of the classes she had been most looking forward to - dramatic arts - was full and her course advisor had blandly informed her, just an hour ago, that she would have to 'find something else to take'. She nearly scoffed openly at the woman, but her perfectly cultivated Southern manners kicked in at the last minute.

3) She was utterly and completely alone.

All through high school, herself and her best friend Bonnie had talked about attending NYU. They had even created a scrapbook. A scrapbook, for goodness sake. But then, in the middle of their senior year Bonnie's grandmother had passed away suddenly. The two had been close. The mournful halo around Bonnie's eyes never lessen, even as time passed. She lost whatever it was that had previously allowed her to be carefree, whatever had allowed her to be happy. Gradually she withdrew from any and all social activity. With everyone applying to colleges across the country and looking eagerly towards their own futures, no one but Caroline noticed. This year Bonnie had decided to take an unplanned gap year to France. She claimed she needed to 'get away', but in truths he had already been gone for months.

Caroline's mother was working, which Caroline imagined entailed polishing her police badge and getting another one of those awful hair-cuts. Caroline's father had a bad case of sunburn. Or so he said on the phone, where she could hear gentle Rastafarian music in the background. So much for parental support.

She sat thinking about these things, absentmindedly fingering the edge of her coffee cup, waiting for it to reach drinkable temperature. The table she sat at was a small round one, made of dark wood. She looked intently at the surface, pretending to inspect it and hoping that the other patrons would not notice that she was alone and miserable.

She was at the point of risking a scalding burn to her tongue, just so that she could drink her coffee and go somewhere less public to mope. Right when she reached for her cup and unknown figure tripped over her tote bag in an attempt to get by her table. She blushed involuntarily and inhaled deeply in preparation for the rambling apology she knew she would soon have to issue. She looked up and met with a pair for green eyes. This coincided perfectly with exhalation so that she felt as though the sight of this devilishly handsome fellow had somehow turned her into a balloon, undergoing deflation.

'Sorry, love,' the stranger said, in what sounded like a British accent.

'Its. . I mean it's totally, totally fine,' she stammered. Internally she slammed her hand against her forehead. All those months of training on the debate team had obviously had no effect whatsoever on her ability to articulate herself.

'Well, see you around, love?' he said, as though it were a question. His eyes were already on the retreating back of a well-dressed blonde exiting the establishment. He flashed her one last heart-melting smile before he hurried after the blond, saying loudly, 'Rebekah, wait!' Caroline was completely dazed by the encounter. She quickly gathered her accident-inducing bag and left.

When she reached the corridor that led to her room, 10 minutes later, confusion settled on her once again. The nameless handsome stranger from earlier was carrying boxes into _her _room.

'Hullo agin, love,' he said with a smirk.

'Are you my room-mate?' she asked, swallowing thickly.

'No, no, love. There's a strict gender policy at this little stuck up place. I'm just helping my sister, Rebekah, move in. If you're in 401, then you girls will be room-mates, I reckon'

'Swell,' she muttered, walking the last few steps towards her room door.

Boxes and expensive looking luggages covered nearly every surface.

'Hi, I'm Caroline. Looks like we're room-mates,' she said, extending her hand towards the other girl. Rebekah did not grasp her hand, as would have been the polite thing to do, but instead she looked up at Caroline wearily and said, 'So listen, if we're going to be room-mates I have a few ground rules. . . . ' She then proceeded to rattle off a list of tedious sounding rules. Caroline stopped listening and when it sounded like Rebekah had finished she said 'Okay, that sounds reasonable.' The little bit Caroline had heard sounded extremely _unreasonable _ but she did not want to begin an argument on the first day, especially if she would be sleeping in the same room as this girl tonight. She flashed Rebekah her most brilliant smile, not wanting to seem daunted and said 'I'm heading out' _to get a stiff drink_ , she added in her head.

Once in the corridor again, she saw Rebekah's brother ( whose name she still did not know) walking towards her, carrying another box. He really was very handsome, especially when he smiled like he was doing right then. 'Ive met you sister,' Caroline began, 'and I need a drink. Forgive my boldness, but would you like to join me?'

His smirk become a full in grin and after putting the box down unceremoniously he said, 'I thought you'd never ask'


End file.
